To Have and to Hold : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Be Warned!!!
Review: I was extremely excited when I found out that Jane Green had a new book coming out. I waited months for it to be released.... then was extremely disappointed to find out that it is not a new book at all!! This is merely a reprint of the UK release Starstruck! The only difference is that it's been retitled! Shame on Jane Green for trying to fool her fans.

Rating:
Summary: Good Chck Lit
Review: If you are in the mood for some thing fun and light this is a good book. It was entertaining and I really liked the main character. It is a good book to read during your bath time.

Rating:
Summary: To have "Hold"
Review: Jane Green tries a different kind of chick-lit in "To Have and To Hold" -- this time it's about a timid young woman who learns that "deserves so very much better." While Alice is a bit of a wimp at times, it's a well-written story about being true to yourself, and about the realities of a good (or bad) marriage.

Alice has the life that most women would kill for -- a gorgeous house, scads of designer clothing, money to burn and a gorgeous husband in London. But to marry Joe, she gave up her dreams of kids and a cottage in the country, and remade her body and attitude just to please him. She tries to convince herself that this is a glorious life -- and also tries to believe that Joe, a notorious womanizer, isn't operating under the credo "what she doesn't know won't hurt her."

But when someone walks in on Joe with his coworker/girlfriend Josie, he finds himself unceremoniously transferred to New York. He and Alice also purchase a small, run-down cottage in the country, which Alice fixes up according to her tastes. Though Joe has vowed to remain faithful, he doesn't like Alice when she is happy, relaxed and dressed in jeans, rather than a docile trophy wife. And now that Alice has found her "soul home," she finds a strength she never knew she had.

Infidelity is a pretty touchy subject, but Green's tactic of taking on several POVs is what makes "To Have and To Hold" so good. She takes a look at the various kinds of attraction -- the thrill-based kind, the flirty-only kind, and the true-love kind -- and offers a few subtle insights into what makes a relationship bomb and what makes it work.

Green's writing is pretty ordinary, but she has a knack for making convincing characters. She lets the plot unfold slowly, letting the problems and tension unfold, as we find out more about Alice. Green's picture of the urban surroundings is glittery but lifeless, while the New England countryside is warm and cozy -- just as it is meant to be.

It's a bit hard to connect with Alice at first -- she's so timid that she changes everything about herself to please her husband. But when she gets her country cottage -- which, we learn, once belonged to a woman who suffered her husband's affairs for years -- we get to see her blossom. It's all the more satisfying, since she was so weak before. And Green dips into the minds of the other characters and giving them motivations, such as the caddish Joe and "other woman" Josie.

Relationships -- good and bad -- sit at the heart of "To Have and To Hold," a book that could easily have been called "In Glamour or in Jeans." An enlightening bit of high-end chick-lit.

Rating:
Summary: Mildly enjoyable
Review: Like many other reviewers, I found this (my first book by Jane Green) to be a mildly entertaining beach read but ultimately disappointing. It was spoiled for me by Green's rather wooden style of writing, flat, unconvincing dialogue and one-dimensional characters. A pity, because I thought the author did an excellent job of creating a sense of place and I could tell - even though I didn't enjoy this book as much as I'd hoped - that she could do much better. I look forward to reading her other novels.

Rating:
Summary: A Dull Read
Review: The plot concept is interesting, a trophy wife who really doesn't want to be a trophy wife, and her unfaithful husband. The trouble is, Green doesn't really do anything with the idea. The story kind of limps along following Alice (the wife) as she lives her life around the materialism and image consciousness her husband, Joe, craves.

It's a bland read from start to finish with very little to liven it up. The story focuses mostly on the day to day routines of the characters but gives the reader very little insight into their thought processes or motivations. The point of view changes several times to give unneeded exposition; however, the tone of the story doesn't change and as a result, all the characters seem the same. They are all so flat, dull, and boring that it is impossible to care about any of them.

There is no drama and excitement here, just a disjointed, predictable narrative that goes nowhere. Alice doesn't even discover her husband's five plus years of infidelity until the last 50 pages of the book, after which the character's stories are wrapped up in the most obvious way possible. The reader will be able to spot any plot twist from a mile away.

Green's overly-narrative style and a multitude of flashbacks do little to help move the story and she apparently thinks using the f-word every paragraph or so makes for good writing. Avoid it.

Rating:
Summary: Unlikable heroine doesn't help...
Review: Unlikable heroine doesn't help...
I tried to like this book. I really did. However, I think it's easier to connect with a book when you identify with one of the characters. And the main characters here were certainly not identifiable for me. There's the main character, Alice, who is married to Joe, who is a serial cheater, who is currently cheating with Josie, one of his co-workers. When Joe and Josie are discovered messing around in the office, Joe gets transferring across the ocean...to New York City. For Joe, a new city means...new women. And Alice is happy to play away at their country house in Connecticut, which was previously owned by an author, Rachel, whose husband was also cheating on her, and she wrote a book on it, which scandalized the town. (I don't see why that's important, but the author seems to think so.) Alice and Joe I never really cared for as a couple. I wanted him to get caught, and I wanted her to use her head to catch him! I also saw some of the "twists" coming from miles away. I would be willing to try another book by the author because I've heard good things about her, but I wouldn't read this one again.